Welcome to the tenth edition of the Mos Eisley Gazette!
Just over a week ago, Destiny players from around the world gathered for the Ryloth Open – the latest in the Galactic Open event series. Across 6 rounds of Swiss in each of 3 heats, players competed for the glory of a top spot on the leaderboard and tickets redeemable for a wide range of gorgeous ARH spot gloss cards. Read on for highlights from the weekend…
Tournament Highlights
One of the things that makes Galactic Open events so popular is the prize structure, with every player earning a spot gloss (and an initial set of tickets redeemable for *more* prizes) just for participating and an opportunity to earn even more tickets for every win. Tickets will soon be loaded and redeemable via the system outlined HERE.
With the event scheduled to fit a variety of timezones, the Open saw 36 unique players across the weekend and 69 total entries, with many players participating in multiple heats.
The Challonge tournament platform doesn’t include a decklist feature (more on that below) so it’s difficult to completely assess the Ryloth meta, but for every Obi-Wan sighting (pairings with Luke, Aayla, and Daughter each made top 8), players would also bump into surprising characters like Rose, Jun Sato, the Alazmecs, Jerjerrod, and multiple sightings of Ziro and Needa. Old standbys Visla/Hondo performed well, Baze/Chirrut had the only undefeated run, and Big Rey returned to top tables after a brief hiatus. Other notable pairings included 4-wide Imperial Navy Squad Leader (INSL) that brings a whopping 36 health and Leader/Pilot subtype tricks and Cad/Nute passing the Emperor title back-and-forth throughout the game for a bazillion indirect damage. Absent despite lots of speculation after he joined Echoes of Destiny list recently? Dryden Vos.
Two other big winners of the weekend included a newly-discovered BB8 combo that routinely resets Black One 5+ times/round (and quickly resulted in BB8’s removal from the Echoes list!) and the rollbetter.gg tournament website, which sprang into action for an impromptu debut after Challonge again faced game-day glitches. Folks looking to play in ARH events going forward can expect to see more of rollbetter in the future.
Want to re-live more of the Open? See below for the top 8 from each heat and some insights from the winner or tune in to any of the terrific streamers who covered the action, including Echobase, Gameslayer, Rando Mando, and Norman. And stay tuned for a Part 2 piece featuring Djclero – aficionado of all things Unique Perspectives and Gamorrean, as well as the only player who made the top 8 in each of the 3 heats (4-2, 5-1, 5-1).
Heat 1 – Rainmaker with Baze/Chirrut
The first heat started early in the US and midday in Europe, drawing 24 players from around the globe to earn a Hera spot gloss card. The leaderboard was the most diverse of the weekend with 8 different pairings, including Baze/Chirrut: the only undefeated run of the Open. We connected with Rainmaker (Central Illinois, USA) to learn more…
In the weeks leading up to the tournament, how did you assess the meta? What pairings did you expect to see?
I expected to see a lot of Obi and mill. In most of the games I played leading up to the event, those seemed to be the best performing decks. Obi/Aayla, Obi/Kam (though not as much of this with the recent balance changes), and Obi/Daughter each seemed really strong and other mill decks also seem to be in a good place.
Why Baze/Chirrut? What does this deck want to do?
I just wanted to have fun and coming back from not really playing much in the last year, I had really enjoyable games playing with that deck prior to the GO. I had an epic battle with Mawloc on BigRey that made me think, ‘yeah, this deck can compete’. Also, that early in the morning I wanted a deck that is not the most difficult to play. There are still a lot of decision points to make, and it can get tricky when to play it safe or durdle to wait to activate Baze as a good portion of removal is Guardian based, but it also induces fast games with the damage output potential it has from the initial dice.
The deck seems self explanatory, hit hard early and often. I ran armory and upgrades to ramp into more dice with solid base sides and with field medic to heal and keep Baze alive.
What were the last cards to make the list? What was card 31 that you wish you could have included?
Last card to make it in was guarded. I don’t think it is played too much (a lot of pausing to read it!), but it was key in a lot of situations. As long as Baze is still alive, you can reroll a die, remove a damage die, and then Guardian another damage die! Soft removal and multi-die removal all for 1 resource.
More yellow cards probably would have helped, Beskar Hammer may replace the partisan U-Wing or the bo-rifle in the next edition.
What do you want to see in your opening hand?
Always Armory and a weapon or two, This is War! for that zero cost removal, and with Guardian you can remove a low damage side as well! Field Medic (or two!) if it’s an aggro deck, and matchup depending, Heroic Protector.
What are this deck’s best matchups? Which matchups are most challenging for this deck?
I don’t think it has unwinnable matchups. Mill might be hard, but those die sides are big and if you ramp into Light Repeating Blaster early enough that’s a lot of damage to handle throughout the course of a game. I did discard to reroll a fair amount to try and get max damage in rounds. That may work to mill’s favor but being able to resolve a modified side with Baze and turning a blank with Chirrut is pretty powerful.
Other than the results themselves, what was a favorite moment from the tournament?
People’s reaction to playing Baze/Chirrut. I think it is an underplayed deck, and though I had some things go my way, their power actions remove some of the need to roll super well. I also enjoyed being able to grab a cup of coffee between matchups because the games were generally quick games and I needed that coffee to stay awake at that hour! Another highlight was playing against other players who were there to have fun and enjoy the day; we have such a solid community of players.
Heat 2 – Malacious Mawloc with Obi/Daughter
Later on Saturday, 20 players returned for heat 2 and a Fifth Brother spot gloss card. Compared to the first heat, the leaderboard leaned much more towards mill and also included some repeat pairings. We connected with Malacious Mawloc (Topeka, Kansas, USA) to learn about his experience taking Obi/Daughter to 5-1.
In the weeks leading up to the tournament, how did you assess the meta? What pairings did you expect to see?
The meta has been healthy since the last holocron. The best decks leading up to the GO weekend seemed to revolve around a few characters, namely Obi-Wan, Tarkin, Nute, Maul, and Qi’ra. I thought most decks would rely on getting a few big cards into play early, then would focus on dealing damage or mitigating their opponent’s actions from there.
Why Obi-Wan/Daughter? What does this deck want to do?
I chose Obi-Wan/Daughter in Forest Clearing since my read of the meta meant that I wasn’t worried about having to deal with the threat of losing a character round 1 or 2. I’m not typically a mill player, and actually despise playing against it, so this was a bit of a weird choice for me! But I was having fun playing it, and with lots of testing and discussions with TurkeyClubSamich in the weeks leading up to the GO I was very comfortable on the deck.
The deck has access to the best discard from deck cards in hero, with “Yoda’s Teachings,” “Deep Meditation,” and “Fresh Start.” Having access to cards that can discard from the deck are extremely important in a mill deck, as each card you take from your opponent could translate to one less round of having to survive, and without an ability to hit the deck the most you can discard in each round is generally the 5 cards your opponent draws.
On top of having some of the best cards to further your win condition, the deck has access to an absurd amount of health generation from shielding and healing. On average I was healing two to four damage a round by playing/overwriting blue abilities and via “Force Valor,” “Wuher,” and “Restore.” Blue Hero has historically been the best at building a shield wall but lacked options to heal damage that sneaks through. Now, without the fear of losing a character before I could establish an engine to stay alive, I thought the deck would be able to stabilize any early push of damage and I was right: over the course of my 6 games, I may have only lost a character once.
The deck is pretty simple to pilot, you generally start each round playing an upgrade on Daughter or one of the supports. Then do anything except activate Obi-Wan until it’s time to activate him for his guardian.
What were the last cards to make the list? What was card 31 that you wish you could have included?
The very last card to make the deck was “Prescient Leap” – a card I had completely forgotten about until the last minute before the tournament when TurkeyClubSamich showed me he was running it in his list and I cut my one copy of “Binary Force” for it. I’m sure glad I did too; without it I probably would have lost two more games.
One card I really wanted to find room for in the deck was “Force Heal,” but “Force Assistance” was just a more consistent option that filled the same deck slot.
What do you want to see in your opening hand?
you wanted your hand to be one or two dice cards, a ramp card, a piece of 0 cost mitigation, and a mill card or another mitigation piece. My number one mulligan target was always “Yoda’s Teachings”, as it enables lots of ramp and discarding from your opponents deck from the jump. Past that “Wuher”, “Force Valor”, “Force Mirage”, “Blue Milk”, and “Nullify” are cards you almost always keep if you see it in your first five. Then depending on matchup “Prescient Leap”, “Deep Meditation”, and “Force Assistance” were generally worth keeping.
What are this deck’s best matchups? Which matchups are most challenging for this deck?
As for matchups, you really want to see other Blue Hero or ramp decks that start the game with very few damage sides. Obi/Daughter doesn’t mind most aggro decks, but decks that include ways to resolve additional dice for damage or deal damage without dice can be a struggle. The deck I was most worried about coming across in the tournament was actually Son/Qi’ra/PtM as I thought the deck was popular enough to be represented, it can put out big chunks of damage fast, and I worried I wouldn’t be able to slow it down enough without the ability to kill either character.
The one matchup that is pretty much an automatic loss is Villain mill decks. They trade the survivability of Hero mill for the chance to discard cards from the hand and deck much more aggressively and consistently. In a straight mill-off, that spells defeat for the Hero player.
Other than the results themselves, what was a favorite moment from the tournament?
One of my favorite moments from the tournament has to be the end of my match 6 game vs Djclero. He was playing Thrawn/Jerjerrod/Ziro and is also not generally a mill player. Through some sloppy play from both of us we ended up milling each other out in the same round!
Not realizing that mill has its own special tie-breakers, we reached the last round completely out of cards and started scrambling for damage. On an Obi-Wan power action I rolled a 1/36 for double 3-for-1 melee that would have put me ahead on damage! But alas, he was a couple actions ahead of me in claiming the battlefield and we found out after the game that the only tie breaker when both players are out of cards is battlefield control. After starting 5-0 and finishing 5-1 with a nail biter of a loss to DjClero I managed to win the day on strength of schedule.
Heat 3 – Vika and Maul/FN-2199
The Ryloth Open reconvened on Sunday, drawing 25 players for the final heat and a Qi’ra spot gloss card.Although a pair of Obi/Luke decks made the top 4, the rest of the leaderboard included pairings that hadn’t reached the top table all weekend. Vika (Saskatoon, Canada) shares his experience running the FN-2199/Maul combo that Dice Commando appropriately termed a “spicy meatball.”
In the weeks leading up to the tournament, how did you assess the meta? What pairings did you expect to see?
I expected to see a lot of Obi-Wan and maybe some mill as well.
Why Maul and FN? What does this deck want to do?
I’ve had success with the deck and I like the indirect-from-hand cards that yellow villain and red villain can bring to the table. The deck wants to play an upgrade on FN round 1 to turn on his power action. All other rounds the deck wants to play indirect-from-hand cards and/or removal cards and push damage, including using Maul’s PA.
What were the last cards to make the list? What was card 31 that you wish you could have included?
I’ve tweaked the deck since the tournament, and the biggest change I would make would be the battlefield. I leaned into Maul’s draw ability and the three cost weapons by including Black Market Connection and Undercity to help draw into it. I never got BMC to go off in any of the 6 games, and the games were over fast enough that I’m not certain if I would have been able to afford the action to play a free 3 cost upgrade in round 3, had I ever drawn into it. I’ve updated the list to use the Krayt Dragon Lair to help push damage, though I always want to be on my battlefield to give FN two shields, as he’s fragile. Along the same lines I changed the upgrades from 2x Darksaber and 2x Electrohammer (which can suffer against Obi-Wan) to 2 redeploy weapons, Westar and Standard Blaster. BMC’s were replaced with Trick, which I somehow forgot to include.
What do you want to see in your opening hand?
A weapon to play on FN and MSE Droids. Beyond that, it’s more what I don’t want to see. I don’t want to see my high value late game indirect cards, like Scorched Earth, Infamy, Everybody Profits, Imperial Justice and Self-Destruct.
What are this deck’s best matchups? Which matchups are most challenging for this deck?
Any deck that prints shields is a tough matchup for this burn deck, so mostly hero blue decks with Obi Wan but also the reroll/the path deck. Guardian is also a bad thing to see, as FN has a 0 ranged side. Good match-ups would include decks that can’t make shields and can’t quickly burn FN down.
Other than the results themselves, what was a favorite moment from the tournament?
I really liked seeing Djclero’s deck – Maul/eNute/Cultist of the Sith Eternal. It’s a cool and completely unique line up and I just barely came out on top in our match (one health remaining), which was in the first round. He ended up going 5-1 as well.
Final Thoughts from Ryloth
With the sun setting on the Ryloth Open, we’re grateful to the ARH team for continuing to support Organized Play, Landowonka and Majobasil for hosting the heats, and to all the players who brought creativity, humor, and competition to the weekend.
With the Renewed Prime Championship events returning this spring, we look forward to sharing more event recaps – including a slew of in-person events that kicks off with a Prime in Toronto (Canada) on March 11 (details HERE), a Prime in Swindon (UK) on March 25 (sign up HERE), another Prime in St. Louis (USA) on May 27, the UK Games Expo in June, and GenCon in August.
